To reveal the trajectory of depressive symptoms among bereaved older adults in China and to explore the factors influencing them.

Based on the longitudinal data provided by the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), this study used the Latent growth mixture model (LGMM) to identify individuals’ depressive symptom trajectories over time, and multivariate logistic regression was used to analyse the influencing factors.

Four patterns of trajectories of depressive symptoms among bereaved older adults were found: low depression rapidly increasing group (10.2%), high depression rapidly decreasing group (11.5%), high depression slowly increasing group (23.9%), and low depression continuously stable group (54.4%). The results of the multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that, in the trajectory of depressive symptom onset among elderly parents who lost their children in China, living in urban areas, having fewer days with poor sleep per week, and reporting good self-rated health status are all protective factors, while low life satisfaction is a risk factor (all P<0.05).

This study reveals heterogeneity in changes in depressive symptoms among bereaved older adults in China. The government and medical institutions should meet individualized support measures based on the characteristics of different groups.